Monday, March 07, 2011

[MONDAY MUSIC] – EAT/Sell Me A God

I first encountered Eat while watching MTV back in the late 80s when they still showed music videos. I honestly cannot remember what the video was that I watched, or even if I liked it, but the band name and the album name stuck with me in that distant way. I wasn’t going to go out of my way to find it, but if I ran into it, I might give the record a shot.

Fast forward some twenty years while I was making a purchase from one of my favorite places for used music, Second Spin, when the name somehow made the trek from my sub-conscious to my conscious mind. I shrugged and typed the band name in the search. Sure enough, Second Spin had the disc for something like three dollars. I figured what the hell and gave it a shot.

The shipment came… I listened to the album… and promptly filed it away. It was okay, but I had gotten like twelve albums with that order and a couple of things had grabbed my attention in more immediate ways. Sell Me a God does make its way out of the collection every now and then, and here’s what I think about it…

Take some pop-oriented, swamp blues… filter it through some late-80s British alterna-hip sensibilities… have it played by competent musicians… serve to taste.

Now, Eat is a good outfit, and Sell Me a God has some standout songs (namely “Walking Man” and the bouncing “Things I Need”) that elevate the album into “worth listening to”-status, but this is not essential music. If you have anything by the Wonder Stuff or the FatimaMansions, you’ve got stuff in a similar vein that falls in between those two bands. Not as poppy as the Stuffies, nor as intense as the Mansions, but a nice median that disguises the gems that are on the record.

“Gyrate” takes and builds on a nice hook from bassist Tim Sewell (who’s good throughout, as is his partner-in-time, drummer Pete Howard), but the lyrics and vocals do nothing to serve the tune.

“Summer In The City” is a cover of the iconic Lovin’ Spoonful tune. I like the original, and this version is serviceable, but nothing stellar.

In summary, if you can find iTunes/mp3s of “Walking Man”, “Things I Need”, and “Gyrate”, and you’re looking for something a little odd and retro, pick ‘em up. If you’re a completist, get the whole album. Just be prepared to hit the track advance button a fair bit.

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About Me

A man who wasted 20+ years of his life trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing with it, only to have the answer drop in seemingly from out of nowhere even though it was right in his face the whole time.